As mid-October approaches, all farms should now be in their final round of grazing. Although it’s not as tempting as it was to do during the finer weather, paddocks still need to be walked and measured and an autumn grass budget done to assess grass quantity.
The aim is to keep grass in the diet for as long as possible without negatively affecting the grass supply for the spring rotation, when grass is of more value to your farm.
It’s a delicate balance of grazing enough ground in order to not carry over excessive covers over the winter, while leaving enough grass behind to carry you through until early April for the first rotation.
My guess is that more farmers will struggle to graze sufficient volumes of grass going by the high growth rates seen recently and the difficult grazing conditions. The target should be to have 60-70% of the farm grazed and closed up by 1 November for dry farms, with 80% closed on heavier soils. Farmers with a higher six week calving rate or those beginning in late January should aim for the 70% figure.
Buffer feeding
Where required, silage buffer feeding and meal levels should be adjusted to reach the above targets.
Regarding where to graze, dry paddocks close to the yard with good access should be targeted now to ensure medium covers on these in early February when the first of the cows will be going out.
Finally, it’s last chance saloon for slurry spreading. After two extensions, Saturday will be the final day to spread slurry, with the closed period for soiled water kicking in on the 1 December.
If possible, try to target paddocks further away from the yard, as if pressure comes on in spring or an umbilical system comes in to the yard, they are unlikely to receive much slurry.
Farmers should be on the final rotation now and planning on spring 2024 grazing.Target 60-70% of the farm to be grazed and closed up by 1 November, or 80% for heavier farms. Higher six week calving or earlier calving will require 70% be closed.Adjust silage and meal feeding levels as required to reach targets.Final call for slurry spreading as closed period begins this weekend.Farmers
John and Sylvia Powell – Birr, Co Offaly
We started zero grazing some ground yesterday but had to call a halt to it there on Wednesday due to the rainfall again. It’s been a difficult back end to the summer, and any remaining grass will likely only be grazed through on-off grazing.
Cows are on 12-hour breaks pretty consistently since the summer, with two access points to the paddock.
If we hadn’t been doing this, we would have caused a lot of damage. We are grazing our driest paddocks at the moment, but if we got an upturn in the weather, we would try get some of our heavier paddocks grazed.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 3.99
Growth Rate (kg/day) 43
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 944
Yield (l/cow) 14.5
Fat% 5.21
Protein% 4.04
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.38
Concentrates 3.5kg
Donal Patton – Teagasc
Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
To date we have 26% of the farm closed. We’re behind where we would like to be, but the farm cover is low so we should catch up. Cull cows and those scanned empty were sold this week to reduce stocking rate.
Cows were in by night over the weekend. In the last two weeks they have been in by night seven or eight times. We’ll graze day and night for the remainder of this week, but after this we will likely only be out by day.
Cows are currently grazing the paddocks we are targeting for early grazing in February. They are dry paddocks with good access, with most of our heavy ground grazed by now.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 2.36
Growth Rate (kg/day) 28
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 680
Yield (l/cow) 15.3
Fat% 5.28
Protein% 4.07
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.37
Concentrates 3kg
Stephen O’Keeffe – Kilmallock, Co Limerick
Conditions are challenging right now with the rain. We took advantage of a few dry days to get some of the heavy covers (above 2,000kg DM/ha zero grazed off. We utilised strip wires and gave 12-hour allocation to try maximise utilisation without damaging paddocks.
Silage went in to cows from Tuesday evening. We are feeding 6kg of silage per day at the barrier as grass dry matter is low. We were creeping ahead of our autumn rotation planner so looked to slowing this down.
Growth has been holding well and is still ahead of demand, so hopefully we can graze out late in to the autumn and utilise this.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 2.92
Growth Rate (kg/day) 42
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 957
Yield (l/cow) 13
Fat% 5.4
Protein% 4.43
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.32
Concentrates 2kg
As mid-October approaches, all farms should now be in their final round of grazing. Although it’s not as tempting as it was to do during the finer weather, paddocks still need to be walked and measured and an autumn grass budget done to assess grass quantity.
The aim is to keep grass in the diet for as long as possible without negatively affecting the grass supply for the spring rotation, when grass is of more value to your farm.
It’s a delicate balance of grazing enough ground in order to not carry over excessive covers over the winter, while leaving enough grass behind to carry you through until early April for the first rotation.
My guess is that more farmers will struggle to graze sufficient volumes of grass going by the high growth rates seen recently and the difficult grazing conditions. The target should be to have 60-70% of the farm grazed and closed up by 1 November for dry farms, with 80% closed on heavier soils. Farmers with a higher six week calving rate or those beginning in late January should aim for the 70% figure.
Buffer feeding
Where required, silage buffer feeding and meal levels should be adjusted to reach the above targets.
Regarding where to graze, dry paddocks close to the yard with good access should be targeted now to ensure medium covers on these in early February when the first of the cows will be going out.
Finally, it’s last chance saloon for slurry spreading. After two extensions, Saturday will be the final day to spread slurry, with the closed period for soiled water kicking in on the 1 December.
If possible, try to target paddocks further away from the yard, as if pressure comes on in spring or an umbilical system comes in to the yard, they are unlikely to receive much slurry.
Farmers should be on the final rotation now and planning on spring 2024 grazing.Target 60-70% of the farm to be grazed and closed up by 1 November, or 80% for heavier farms. Higher six week calving or earlier calving will require 70% be closed.Adjust silage and meal feeding levels as required to reach targets.Final call for slurry spreading as closed period begins this weekend.Farmers
John and Sylvia Powell – Birr, Co Offaly
We started zero grazing some ground yesterday but had to call a halt to it there on Wednesday due to the rainfall again. It’s been a difficult back end to the summer, and any remaining grass will likely only be grazed through on-off grazing.
Cows are on 12-hour breaks pretty consistently since the summer, with two access points to the paddock.
If we hadn’t been doing this, we would have caused a lot of damage. We are grazing our driest paddocks at the moment, but if we got an upturn in the weather, we would try get some of our heavier paddocks grazed.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 3.99
Growth Rate (kg/day) 43
Average Farm Cover (kg/ha) 944
Yield (l/cow) 14.5
Fat% 5.21
Protein% 4.04
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.38
Concentrates 3.5kg
Donal Patton – Teagasc
Ballyhaise, Co Cavan
To date we have 26% of the farm closed. We’re behind where we would like to be, but the farm cover is low so we should catch up. Cull cows and those scanned empty were sold this week to reduce stocking rate.
Cows were in by night over the weekend. In the last two weeks they have been in by night seven or eight times. We’ll graze day and night for the remainder of this week, but after this we will likely only be out by day.
Cows are currently grazing the paddocks we are targeting for early grazing in February. They are dry paddocks with good access, with most of our heavy ground grazed by now.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 2.36
Growth Rate (kg/day) 28
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 680
Yield (l/cow) 15.3
Fat% 5.28
Protein% 4.07
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.37
Concentrates 3kg
Stephen O’Keeffe – Kilmallock, Co Limerick
Conditions are challenging right now with the rain. We took advantage of a few dry days to get some of the heavy covers (above 2,000kg DM/ha zero grazed off. We utilised strip wires and gave 12-hour allocation to try maximise utilisation without damaging paddocks.
Silage went in to cows from Tuesday evening. We are feeding 6kg of silage per day at the barrier as grass dry matter is low. We were creeping ahead of our autumn rotation planner so looked to slowing this down.
Growth has been holding well and is still ahead of demand, so hopefully we can graze out late in to the autumn and utilise this.
Stocking Rate (cow/ha) 2.92
Growth Rate (kg/day) 42
Average Farm Cover (kg/cow) 957
Yield (l/cow) 13
Fat% 5.4
Protein% 4.43
Milk Solids (kg/cow) 1.32
Concentrates 2kg
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